Sarkozy declares bid for re-election

Nicolas Sarkozy finally confirms he is running again for French presidency and likens himself to the captain of a ship in a storm

Nicolas Sarkozy has formally declared that he will run for a second term as president of France this spring.

Sarkozy appeared live on the evening news of the private TV channel TF1 to kick off a difficult re-election battle, saying not to run would be like a captain abandoning his ship in a storm.

Asked why he was standing, he said: “France, Europe and the world has for the past three years seen a series of unprecedented crises” and not standing again would be like “the captain of a ship in the middle of a storm saying ‘I’m tired, I’m giving up’.” He said would create a “strong” France based on the values of “work”

Famous for his theatrical rallies and showmanship, Sarkozy will launch into a bruising campaign tour to reinvent himself. He will begin with a visit on Thursday to a cheese factory in the Alps, seen as a nod to Charles de Gaulle’s famous quip about the difficulty of bringing together “a country with 265 different kinds of cheeses”. He is expected to outline his political vision in a big rally in the southern city of Marseille on Sunday.

Sarkozy has begun his re-election fight on an even more staunchly right-wing note than his first election in 2007. In an interview with Le Figaro this weekend, he stressed the right-wing notion of “values” and the importance of France’s Christian heritage, appealing to far-right supporters of Marine Le Pen’s Front National, who is about four points behind him in the polls. He set the tone for a campaign that will pitch the values of work against a benefits culture. His opponents attacked him as divisive after suggestions of referendums on how to deal with illegal immigrants and the unemployed. He set himself apart from the Socialist Hollande, who favours legalisation of gay marriage and euthanasia, saying he opposed those measures. Sarkozy approved as “common sense” controversial remarks by his interior minister and close ally, Claude Guéant, that “not all civilisations are of equal value”, implying some, such as the French, are to be valued more highly than others.

Sarkozy was elected in 2007 with a huge mandate to change France, but 70% of French electors now see his record in office as negative. France is in the grip of a recession, a debt crisis and has a black hole in state coffers. Jobs are the main priority for voters. Sarkozy promised full employment but joblessness is at a 12-year-high at nearly 10% with almost a million more people out of work than when he took office. After parading his private life with Carla Bruni and being seen as the president of the rich early in his presidency, Sarkozy remains unpopular. He is working on a deeply personal book described as a kind of mea culpa to the nation, to make him seem more humane to voters.

Sarkozy’s advisers hope the sudden campaign launch will bring a quick poll lift. The president had banked on waiting to declare his candidacy until the eleventh hour in March, hoping to maintain a presidential aura and adopting a Churchillian strategy of political “courage” in the face of the economic crisis. Last month he announced a range of unpopular measures including an increase in VAT, presented as a reform blitz to lift France out of its economic gloom. But the measures, which sparked dissent among some in his party ranks, failed to boost him in the polls.

A poll on Wednesday by Harris Interactive for VSD magazine, put Hollande on 28% for the first round in April, with Sarkozy on 24%, Le Pen on 20% and the centrist François Bayrou on 13%. Polls have shown Hollande would beat Sarkozy in a run-off between the two in May. The Harris poll has showed Hollande scoring 57% against 43% for Sarkozy in the second round.